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Conquering Personal Search

Today, search engines are more powerful and intuitive than ever. While the changes in search engine technology have been generally good for the user, it can be more difficult for a content marketer to get to their audience. Today, a content marketer has to think outside the box in order to conquer the fact of personal search.

What personal search technology does is create different search results for each individual who is conducting a search for any keyword or keyword phrase. The technology bases the results on pages you’ve found useful in the past, your profile if you have one, and other factors such as your location and even your assumed political affiliation.

Personal search can be a roadblock for a content marketer who isn’t paying attention and planning content around the knowledge of personal search technology. Google in particular has made a point of producing more personalized results for users. They are essentially indexing your life – all on Google.

As search engine technology changes (and it will continue to change), it’s important for the savvy marketer to go with the flow and seek to understand how the changes affect them. In addition, it’s essential for marketers to rid themselves of outdated traffic-generating methods. It’s also important for marketers to take Google at its word and use the tools they provide webmasters to improve your page rank.

Content Is Still Powerful

The most powerful weapon in your arsenal to continue to attract your audience in spite of personalized search is content. Continue to create well-written, authoritative content for your audience and you’ll continue to show high page ranks. Avoid trying to trick the search engines, and instead focus on providing a good user experience for your audience with the content you choose to promote.

Search Engine Optimization Still Works

If you have a locally focused business, search engine optimization works even better. But, if you have a strictly online business where location doesn’t matter, it will still work well for you – provided that you focus on creating a lot of content, and understand the value and importance of using keywords properly.

You don’t want to keyword stuff, and you don’t want your content to look unnatural, but you do want to use keywords for your page titles, subtitles, headers and within your content in the most natural way possible.

Use Social Media to Drive Traffic

Some marketers are not listening and are not paying attention. You don’t want to replace your website with social media. Social media is simply another tactic to help you drive traffic to your website (and if you have a bricks and mortar store, into your store). You don’t want your audience to go to your social media, and that’s it. You want them on your website.

Pay attention to new tactics such as in-person events, webinars, and more to stay on top of traffic-generating technology. Focus on creating the best business for your audience that you can. If your products and/or services are focused on your audience, and your content is also focused on your audience, you will conquer search engine personalization without missing a beat.